Techni-Cast foundry invests in co-generation system

09 February 2018

Techni-Cast, a foundry offering alloying and casting services, has taken the next steps in making its infrastructure more efficient by cutting down on their energy bills by generating power onsite with a natural gas fuelled, co-generation system.

Apart from the co-generation system that “recycles” waste heat and meets some of the toughest exhaust emissions limits in the US, Techni-Cast has set up a streamlined process for delivering alloying and casting services that proceed from metal melting, centrifugal casting, heat treatment and machining to testing and delivery.

Metal centrifugal casting, as pioneered by Techni-Cast, is fundamentally different from nearly every other casting process currently employed worldwide. The process involves introducing metal into the mold under great force and pressure approaching 50 G’s. The company deals with alloys with base elements such as copper, iron, nickel, cobalt and aluminum, and has added stainless alloys and increased size capability and automation as well.

Techni-Cast now produces about 82 percent of the electricity it uses, and has cut energy requirements both through its use of exhaust gas for metal preheating and generator jacket water for air conditioning. Plus, when commercial customers combine co-gen with “energy recycling” measures, as Techni-Cast has done, the local utility, Southern California Edison (SoCal Edison), exempts them from certain fees into the future.